SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cradlewise, a Silicon Valley-based baby technology company that makes smart cribs for babies, has raised a seed round of $7M led by new venture capital firm Footwork with significant participation from CRV and follow on from existing investors SOSV and Better Capital. Other notable investors participating include Katrina Lake (founder of Stitch Fix), Jeremy Cai (CEO of Italic), Dilip Goswani (CTO of Molekule) and Sonny Vu (ex-CEO of Misfit Wearables). The company makes smart cribs with a built-in baby monitor that uses AI to learn the baby’s sleep patterns and adapts to changing needs. It’s a crib, bassinet and monitor - all integrated into one. It’s a baby’s sleep companion from birth to 24 months old. The self-learning crib spots the first signs of wakeup of the baby and starts rocking automatically along with soothing music to safeguard sleep.
Co-founders Radhika and Bharath Patil invented Cradlewise to solve the sleep challenges they faced when their first child was born. They are inventors and have created tech that drives drones, robots and smartphones for companies like Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.
“We are so excited to be working with such well regarded VC firms and angel investors who have a deep understanding of connected hardware and the consumer market,” said Radhika Patil, Co-Founder of Cradlewise. “We believe that Cradlewise is uniquely positioned in this competitive space as the only smart sleep product designed to impact an outcome and not just give notifications. We will continue to lead in this space by expanding the capabilities of the product in the areas of a baby’s health and safety.”
Nikhil Basu Trivedi, co-founder & General Partner at Footwork joins the board of this fast-growing startup in the $136+ billion child care market. “Cradlewise is the only baby product in the market that uses deep tech and AI to learn the baby’s sleep patterns and growth trends. With software updates that build on this rich data, a characteristic of the very best connected hardware companies such as Nest, Peloton, Tesla, and Tonal, Cradlewise is pioneering the connected nursery,” said Nikhil.
Mike Smith, Footwork co-founder & General Partner, and former President & COO at Stitch Fix, said: “Baby care has always been a challenge. The pandemic has only made it more challenging for new parents. Cradlewise is on a mission to help sleep deprived parents so that they can spend more quality wake time with babies.”
“Cradlewise isn’t just a smart crib, it is a mental health solution for parents,” said Kristin Baker Spohn, General Partner at CRV. “Having spent much of my career focused on the intersection of technology and health, Cradlewise is a great example of how smart technology can be used to help ensure that both babies and their parents can get a good night’s rest, which is truly one of the most important elements for staying healthy.”
“As a working mom of 3 kids, I’m excited to see the next generation of solutions for our kids coming from parents themselves. Hearing Radhika’s founding inspiration, to build a crib for her baby to solve the sleep challenges she experienced balancing work and family, it is a mission and product I instantly connected with,” said Katrina Lake, founder of Stitch Fix.
The company maintains offices in both the San Francisco Bay Area, California and Bangalore, India. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s innovation and technology roadmap and grow their team with senior hires in marketing, operations and product.
Cradlewise currently ships to anywhere in the US directly via cradlewise.com. Plans are also underway to expand availability through other e-commerce websites in 2022.
About Cradlewise :
Founded in 2019, Cradlewise is a Silicon Valley based baby technology startup. Their first product is a smart crib. Bharath and Radhika made this crib after their own experiences of sleepless nights with their first-born child. It is the world’s first crib with an integrated contactless baby monitor that spots the first signs of wakeup of the baby and starts rocking along with soothing music to safeguard sleep. The crib learns from the baby’s sleep patterns and adapts to the changing needs - just like a mom! Cradlewise smart crib is one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020. Cradlewise is all about sensing, learning and impacting sleep fitness for babies. They are redesigning the baby nursery and making it smart, intuitive and delightful.
